Influences of Iteration Details on Flow Continuities of Numerical Solutions to Isothermal Elastohydrodynamic Lubrication With Micro-Cavitations

Abstract

Studying elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) of line contacts involving micro-cavitations, this paper examines various numerical solutions with a focus on their explicit flow continuities from inlet to exit. For the first time, influences of relaxation details, error controls, differential schemes, and mesh densities on flow continuity in EHL are revealed systemically. Furthermore, hybrid relaxation factors are introduced, the line relaxation is enabled with earlier boundary-condition enforcement, and a typical iteration process is updated with a three-in-one iteration control. Such a process is further integrated with two different starvation/cavitation treatments: one explicitly adjusts reformation locations, and the other uses a fractional film content parameter to adjust the Couette term originated by Bayada et al. The mass conservation results for problems with multiple micro-cavitations occurring inside the lubrication region are compared, and flow curves clearly demonstrate satisfactory continuities. These insights are beneficial for EHL simulations.